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The  Rundown with Aryez

Twista

“The Perfect Storm”

Since striking national stardom in the hip hop community with his 1997 major label debut Adrenaline Rush, Twista has been known for his machine gun delivery and tongue twisting style that every artists has at one point or another tried to emulate, yet often fall short. Back with his eighth solo LP, the Chi-town’s adrenaline rushing, po’ pimp is showing audiences that in his eighteen- year span he can survive any hip-hop drought and this time he’s at it again with the unofficial sequel to his 2009 Category F5 effort- The Perfect Storm. Will this musical piece be worth listeners flooding stores to make the purchase? Let’s find out in this edition of the Rundown with Aryez…

Perfect Storm weathers in with the initials tracks “Darkness” featuring DawReck and “Up To Speed” which both are produced by The Legendary Traxster (Ludacris, Mariah Carey). The dark, grittiness of “Darkness” definitely compliments the title of the project and sets the tone of where Twista possibly wants to lead the listener. If you liked the 1997 “Adrenaline Rush” track, you will admire the production, the instrumental itself, as well as respect Twista’s delivery on both of these songs.  The album’s second single “Make a Movie” pairs him with a resurrected Chris Brown to create a very content-heavy, ghetto-love anthem. The song has him and Brown requesting all the fantasies of their women of choice to be done in front of a camera in an effort to make their own “Ray J and Kim Kardashian” sex tapes. This track can be best describe as one half “Wetter” from Twista’s Category F5, and one half “Dilemma” featuring Kelly Rowland from Nelly’s 2002 Nellyville. Other notable songs that place emphasis on sex and street love would be “2012”, “Call the Police” (both produced by The Legendary Traxster) and “Sweating” featuring B. Scott produced by Tight Mike.

The album’s first single and club banger “I Do” can be considered a self-boasting, “ode to your haters” track as much as it is a continuation of Ludacris’ “My Chick Bad” with its screwed up hook and tug boat kicks. The album features collaborations from previously mentioned Chris Brown, DaWreck, and Ray J along with Tia, B. Scott, Waka Flocka Flame and Yo Gotti

Granted, Twista has always been known for his delivery to be his greatest asset, he does offer songs that are rich in subject matter and he sticks to whatever the particular topic of the song may be such as in “2012” and “Back to the Basics”. Another aspect that is appreciated is in the collaborations. Every artist that is featured knows their position and sticks to it. None of the rappers are trying to compete with Twista’s speed, nor are the singers trying to rush harmonic deliveries. The listener can truly admit that all collabs on this project complement one another.

The biggest concern that outweigh these strengths lie in the fact that there doesn’t seem to be any growth on the production side. It seems as though between Twista and Traxster believe they have found a formula that works and reiterates the saying “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. This would work if there were certain elements within the production that remained consistent as with past tracks. But, too much of Twista’s catalogue spins from the original Adrenaline Rush album and many times it seems the only thing that differs tracks such as “Make a Movie” from  Category F5’s “Wetter” and Adrenaline Rush’s “Get It Wet” is the person they use to sing the hook. A variety of producers are needed to show what they can offer to his uncanny talent. Another pitfall lies in the extremities of the album. Slightly under half of the album, he explores the variations of “love and sex in the hood” on tracks “Make a Movie”, “2012” and “Sweating” but then commits a one-eighty degree turn with “Darkness” and “Hands Up Lay Down” where he loathes about vengeance and retribution on his opposition. The last concern that stands out is that the street bangers that were originally slated to be a part of the album somehow ended up only on copies that can be purchased from Best Buy. Of course this is a marketing tactic and collaboration of the label and the retail businesses, but many fans will miss out on solid, quality tracks such as “The Heat” featuring Reakwon. From what was supposed to be a fifteen song album was unfortunately slashed to eleven, with about eight songs being replaced- ouch!

Ultimately, nothing about The Perfect Storm stands out to cause any more damage than his past projects and this can past by as only a thunderstorm advisory.   

 -Aryez

 

 

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